Dale’s Daily Data: Great American Smokeout

Today is the 34th annual Great American Smokeout - a one day campaign to encourage smokers to quit for 24 hours to prove that they can do it. Last year nearly 20-million smokers tried to quit for the day...that's about 40 percent of the nation's 50-million plus smokers. Breast cancer used to be the biggest killer of women. But now, the number one cause of cancer deaths among women and men today is lung cancer. An estimated 136-thousand will die of lung cancer this year and when you include all smoking-related diseases like emphysema, chronic bronchitis and heart disease, 400-thousand will die this year. That's more than the number of Americans who died in World War II and nine times as many people who die in traffic accidents every year. In Erie County 18-hundred people will die every year because of smoking. That's six entire high school graduating classes each year wiped out.

What about second-hand smoke? Non-smokers are affected by exposure to other people's smoking. Studies reveal that children of smokers are more prone to lung problems and allergies than the children of non-smokers. And they're more inclined to start smoking themselves.

Quitting cold-turkey is the hardest way to quit, but the most effective and in the long run, the easiest way.